Trey grabbed Brian around the waist and pulled him out of Sed’s face. “Leave Sed alone,” he said. “I owe him my life.”
“Trey!” Brian hugged him with both arms. Their little bromance disturbed Sed sometimes, especially now that Brian was married. “How do you feel?”
“How do I look like I feel?” Trey struggled from Brian’s stranglehold of an embrace.
Brian looked him over. “You look… great.”
Jessica wandered up the stairs, carrying the laptop case and her mammoth-sized purse. “Yeah, he does.”
Myrna pushed her husband aside and hugged Trey. “We missed you, sweetie. I’ll go make you a cherry pie. How does that sound?”
Trey rolled his eyes in bliss. “Wonderful. Sed tried to starve me to death last night.”
“You do look thin,” Myrna said disapprovingly. She went to the kitchen, opened a cabinet, and started pulling out ingredients.
“We thought you’d call for take out,” Jessica said, looking guilty.
Sed felt no guilt for abandoning Trey for a night. Just happiness. Jessica loved him. Nothing else mattered.
***
Jessica glanced up from the final draft of Myrna’s journal article. Sed handed his cell phone to her. “It’s your mother.”
Jessica’s heart skipped a beat. Her mother had been forbidden to call unless it was an emergency. Jessica grabbed the phone. “Mother? What’s wrong? Did something happen?”
“I thought you’d like to know that you got a letter from the University today. From the dean’s office.”
“Did you open it?”
“After the chewing out you gave me last time, of course I opened it.”
Jessica winced. “Well?”
Something inside her wanted the letter to refuse her the chance to win her scholarship back. She just wasn’t sure she even wanted to be a lawyer anymore. Mostly because she’d have to be away from Sed again, but also because failure did not sit well with her and the thought of being at the same institution as Dean Taylor made her skin crawl.
“Your probation stands,” her mother said, “but if you pass that class you failed—”
“I didn’t fail it, Mother.”
“If you get an A when you retake it, you’ll get to keep your scholarship.”
Jessica didn’t know if she should be elated or disappointed. Well, she knew she should be elated, but now she had a tough decision to make. She looked up at Sed who stood watching her as anxiously as Sed was capable of being. Could she leave him again? Even temporarily?
“I thought you’d be happy,” Mother said.
“I am.” She wasn’t. “Does it say what I have to do?”
“In addition to your regular third-year classes, you have to take the failed class, too.”
“Anything else?”
“You have to pay for the extra class out of your own pocket. It’s not covered by your scholarship. You don’t expect me to foot the bill, do you? You know I can’t afford—”
“No, Mother. Don’t worry about it. I can come up with some money. Thanks for calling and letting me know.”
“Is your boyfriend going to pay for it?”
Jessica scowled. “No. What do you think I’ve been doing all summer? I’ve been working.”
“If you’d just marry that rich rock star guy, you’d never have to work. Then you wouldn’t have to worry about all this going to school nonsense.”
Jessica rolled her eyes. How many times had they had this conversation? A thousand times? A million? “Good-bye, Mother.”
“Take care,” she said brightly.
Jessica ended the call and handed the phone to Sed.
He hugged her. “I’m sorry you didn’t get your scholarship back.”
“Oh, I got it back. I just have to pay for that class I have to retake.”
“You got it back?” Sed tugged her back by her shoulders to look down at her face. “Why aren’t you dancing in celebration?”
She shrugged. The semester started in two weeks and her time with Sed would come to an end. Myrna’s project was ending too, and she’d be heading back to Kansas City for the start of fall semester. There was no reason for Jessica to stay. No reason, except her feelings for Sed.
“I love you,” she whispered around the knot in her throat.
He grinned, both dimples in full view. “I love you.”
She kissed him deeply, wanting him to make her forget all her worries for a couple of hours and immerse herself in him. He took her hand and led her to the back bedroom, incapable of disappointing her.
Chapter 37
Jessica worried her lip as she and Myrna waited in the deserted dressing room for the guys to take the stage in Dallas, Texas. Myrna was no longer collecting data, so they’d watched every performance this week. Tomorrow, Myrna would catch a plane back to Kansas City, and the next day… Jessica didn’t want to think about it.
“What’s bothering you?” Myrna asked.
Jessica glanced up. “I’m not ready for this summer to end.”
Myrna nodded. “I know the feeling. But don’t worry, Sed will come see you when the band takes a break.”
“Yeah, every couple of months.”
Myrna’s brows drew together. “That is so gonna suck. I need to find a new vocation.”
“I know the feeling.”
“That’s not the only thing bothering you, is it?”
Jessica shrugged. “I’m usually excited when a new semester starts. But now, I’m not even sure I want to be a lawyer anymore.”
“I’ve always had a hard time picturing you as a lawyer. You’re too…” Myrna looked reflective for a long moment. “…good.”
“Don’t we need good lawyers?”
“Of course. You just don’t fit the greedy, corrupt stereotype.”
“I’ve been pegged into a stereotype since I grew br**sts. No one takes me seriously. They judge me as…” She didn’t know how to explain it. Men ogled her. Women hated her at first sight.
“Too sexy.”
Jessica shrugged. “Yeah, I guess. Do you think it’s the way I dress or what?”
“Jess, you spend most of your days in sweats and flip-flops. It’s not the way you dress, you just look sexy. Your body. Your face. The way you carry yourself. Don’t be ashamed of it. Women pay plastic surgeons a lot of money to attain your natural assets.”